it hasn't rained in forever or anything, but even a short period
without rain causes problems here, and they don't exactly have water
resevoirs like we do in the states. The power is hydroelectric, so it
goes off and on when there's little rain. If there's little rain then
the pump at the river doesn't work as often and the families in the
town can't get very much water. This means that Kimberly and I can't
wash clothes here at the compound, so today we trekked down to the
river to do that. It was a long walk, and it was a little difficult
because people were staring at us the entire time, but it was actually
faster than washing them at the compound. I never thought I'd say
this, but I like washing my clothes at the river. It was an
interesting experience.
Later today we went to a party that we were invited to at a fellow
PCT's host family's house. So apparently, the heads of the households
from the town all get together at someone's house once a month for a
feast. It's on a rotating basis, and this month it happened to be at
this family's house. We were invited because the family wanted to do
something for Thanksgiving for us, since it was coming up. It was
quite the feast, complete with injera, bag (sheep) wat, dinnich
(potato) wat, misr wat, talla (a homemade alcoholic drink), and arake
(another homemade alcoholic drink).
A quick note about talla and arake and also tej (another homemade
alcoholic drink). These are very popular almost everywhere you go in
Ethiopia, but our small little town has its fair share of tallabets
(basically houses where they just sell talla). It's kind of like
Canon, GA with their liquor stores and bars. I'm not sure exactly
what's in talla, but it looks the color of sludge and the consistency
of murky water. I've been told by people who like alcohol that it's
pretty disgusting. Tej is some mix of alcohol and honey and I've
heard from some it's awful and from some that it's pretty good. I
think it probably depends on where it's made. Arake I haven't heard
much about the taste. It looks like vodka and I've been told it has
close to the alcoholic content of vodka.
Well, that's all for now, but we are looking forward to Thanksgiving
here as we have a big feast planned.
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